The drinking culture of your country?

[FW]

This topic actually came to me in a dream, lol.
Anyway, how is the drinking culture of your country? Regulations and so on?
Are teenagers going to parties getting wasted by the age of 14 in your country in general? And is it normal for grown-ups (parents, family, so on) to drink a glass of redwine in the evenings, maybe going for a "shot" if that's what we'll call it, when eating lunch? Stuff like that, speak!

[The_BoneLESS]

From personnal experiences and what i witnessed:

- young fuckers now start drinking at age 12-13 in parties, having sex in basements in line (fucking loser generation)

- you can go in bars at age 18. Most institutions ask for id.

- parents drink a few times a week (once or twice) a glass of wine or 2 at supper. Not on dinner. Except for a beer on a warm summer day.

- beer cannot be drank in public areas (street, etc.)

can't think of anything else right now...

[milagros]

you can drink from 15, nobody asks for idea, maybe except some 'big' cities but that wasn't my case when i was under 18
people drink quite often, usually not for dinner but in the pub
bars are boring and only for kids
kids usually dont drink (much), weed definitely more popular nowadays
it's not allowed to drink in certain places.. usually centres of 'bigger' cities

[berhabdul]

Poland is a part of 'East drinking culture', so we drink much and well.

Youngsters start drinking at 12-13, some one fifth of their parents even allow it.

You can go to pubs at 18, but in fact you can enter even if you are underaged, only there may exist some problems when you would want to buy alcohol, then it's as following: in bigger cities about 80% institutions (bars, pubs and shops) ask for id, while in smaller cities about 40%.

Most parents drink a beer now and then, some every day, and there is always vodka being drunk when there is some celebration, like new job, new flat, or birthday, or sometimes without an occasion;). No vine is drunk while having a meal.

Alcohol cannot be drunk in public areas, if caught: underaged should have some court problems, but they are usually freed, whilst an 18+ person is given a 100zł=25e fine.

Majority of teenagers drink beer sometimes or more often, cheap vine is also popular.

A bottle of vodka is a very commong gift.

Average costs:
cheap vine (0,7l): 0,9e
a can of beer (0,5l): 0,8e
beer in a pub (0,5l): 1-1,7e
a bottle of vodka (0,5l): 4-5e
Don't knwo other prices because i don't drink anything else

If you're caught extremely drunk (in bigger cities), lying on the ground or badly bangoing around, you are taken to a special place, don't know english word for this, for a night and you have to pay 100e for that.

[insane guy]

As I´m being in the most fucked up city in Germany (atleast i think so - and that what makes it so charming) everybody gets drunk at any time and anywhere.
Its often disgusting to see people drink beer in underground when you´re going to uni at 8 in the morning.

[wjelo]

If you're caught extremely drunk (in bigger cities), lying on the ground or badly bangoing around, you are taken to a special place, don't know english word for this, for a night and you have to pay 100e for that.

yeah, police catch such ppl but actually you only pay 150zł which is less than 40e
they close you in a room with a bed to sleep and even give you a breakfast in the morning
beer is also cheaper than parhun said, you can but a 0,5 bottle of Tyskie or Lech for 2zł in a 'Żabka' shop in bigger cities if you have bottles for exchange. beer in cans sux and is for nabs, didnt even see it in countries like Czech Republic where ppl also drink it a lot
the coulture of drinking changes in Poland, people drink more and more beer and less vodka than before, statistics say so and you can also observe it
you dont always get fines when caught drinking in public, but you have to talk to the policeman a bit, onley if he is an ashole you gotta pay. you can't drink in parks, streets, generally in public places in cities, except places called 'beer gardens' where you got big umbrellas, tables, benches or chairs and draugh beer is being sold; and beaches, if a sign doesnt say it's not allowed (like in Sopot)
like one and a half year ago there was kind of prohibition ehrn the german pope guy came to poland (nowadays the government and president of poland are form far right wing parties). it sucked a lot cuz shops werent allowed to sell alcohol stronger than 4,5% in provinces where the guy was. needles to say there was a party than and noone bought booze before ;/ anyways i got max drunk then ;D
what else
there are lots of drunkards everywhere who drink cheap wines in front of local shops and ask ppl if they will give them some money. police never gives shit as long as they are not agressive. high unemployment= many ppl having nutin to do= become drunkards
wasnt a problem for me to buy beer or vodka when i wasnt 18 yyet, just had sometimes to visit more than 1 shop
nearly every time there is a concert or any other show with lotsa ppl there are fights and generally agressive behaviour beacause some assholes cant behave when drunk

[WkE]

Well, traditional families here in Israel actually do Kiddush, which is some kind of a Jewish ritual where you bless red wine and drink some of it in friday evening (before Sabbath).

Any other family-based drinking: sometimes drinking beer in the summer (goes great with "mangal", which is a very popular Israeli habit - just sitting outside and doing barbecue).

Kids start drinking in varied ages... some 13, some 15. It is very symbolic to start drinking in the age of 13, because of the Bar-Mitzvah, which indicates one's turning into a grownup.

Me and my friends drink on weekly basis, mostly Vodka, and usually when someone has an "empty house", which means getting drunk till the morning. We usually buy either Alexandrow/Keglevich/russian vodkas or "Gold Vodka", which is produced in Israel. Overall, Israeli beers (Maccabi, Goldstar) taste like urine, but we can't really afford Heineken and Carlsberg for every party.

Law: you're allowed to drink if you're over 18, but since we're all underaged, we carry fake IDs.
In some places you'll be asked for ID, but some other kiosks will gladly sell you alcohol, whatever age you are.
I don't think drinking alcohol in public is illegal here.

[bob]

bit hard to explain australia's drinking culture because we are very multicultural. so many different types of people here.
legal age is 18.
kids usually start drinking at about 14 at the occassional house party. 2 drinks max and they are hammered.
most parents dont drink at all, other than special occassions such as a close friends birthday. but most of them wont have over 4 drinks.
pubs everywhere here, can only really find a full-on nightclub here in the city.
people get asked for ID all the time when first walking into bars, especially the casino. People don't use fake IDs, but they do try to borrow IDs from others, such as their brother or sister.
the age range for most bars would be 18-27~, but that depends on the bar. some bars are 30-50yr olds. there is even a place down the road that only accepts people over 28.
our biggest drinkers would be the typical aussie labourer who pretty much goes to his local pub everyday after work, still in his dirty work gear, and have a few beers with some work mates.
i personally think i drink too much, like alot of other people here. usually go out 2 nights a week. not as bad as i use to be though, used to get drunk 4 nights a week.

in the end, us aussies love a drink and we love anyone who's up for it.

and oh yes, thanks to new laws you are not allowed to smoke inside anywhere and you can also get fined for being too drunk.

[enil]

the rules in denmark goes liek this: alc was set 15y, but since we kept on leeding "young drinking the most" it was raised to 16. so atm you need to be 16. but, it should not chok me if it was set to 18 in 5-10 years. since our children/teens (13-16y) still drink too much.

but, the ruitine is mostly that after you finish 7th grade. age 13-14, its perfectly normal to go to local partys or hall-dances, with djs and bar. then afterwards ppl do the 16y to enter places, usually SUCKY discos for newbies and ppl with no life, just wanna be grown and fight and paly drunk. maybe score sum y girl. when you get 18, you can get in almost every place, exept saturdays on bars and shit, where you have too be 21.

ez

[A.K.B.]

kids usually start drinking at about 14 at the occassional house party. 2 drinks max and they are hammered.

wow, when I was 14 I had 2 and half drinks at Jebus's house (opposite my school) ez not drunk tho

[Palme]

As I´m being in the most fucked up city in Germany (atleast i think so - and that what makes it so charming) everybody gets drunk at any time and anywhere.
Its often disgusting to see people drink beer in underground when you´re going to uni at 8 in the morning.

Lol so true, i ve to get up at 5 a clock right now and then go to train at 6 o clock --> so many drunken people

In germany there was a discussion about flatrate partys (free drinks for fix amout of money), because a boy of 13 years died (at least he was very young)

[teajay]

The true charm about Berlin are the people drinking beer on the street.. lovely.

I don't even care to elaborate on this in my country, I know that I am really good with abstaining from alcohol, I like beers with seafood and after tough labour and parties and only drink it then too because I know it becomes more tasty that way. Sure, I have my moments where I drink every day, but most often I keep it on a really healthy level, just like I never smoked and drank coffee.

[umiz]

well, i love beer

[Abula]

In Finland beer and vodka might be most popular. People don't drink much wine here. As I've understood we drink pretty much, over 10L 100% alcohol per person in a year. They try to increase taxes but people are getting their boozes from Estonia then. 10% of the worst alcoholists drink 40% of the alcohol sold in Finland. Public drinking is illegal but it's rare to get fines. You can always tell police you had a picnic but then you would be better to have something to eat and rather stay than move.

Personally I like all type of alcohol anyway (except Chinese rice booze which makes me vomit because took a overdose when I was younger). I drank first time when I was 17y (now 25) and since that been drunk 278 times. I've got all-inclusive stats of my drinking events . At the moment I'm trying to decrease the amount consumed per year. It's been about 2 weeks now without any alco, but unfortunately friends are going to arrange a nice grill party today so not sure if I can resist. Anyway I guess it would be good to limit drinking to 20 times per year or something, now its about 50 for me (dame those Tisk, MP meetings which usually mean 5 days drinking). I've never smoked either and not like coffee.

[J-sim]

I'm still laughing from reading your post Abula. If anyone was to make stats over his drinking it surely would be you. I wonder what these stats consist of? Is it the amounts you drink and what you drink and posibly also the effect it has on you? Or maybe even the results of your drinking, like what bad behaviour comes of it, or sickness or girls?

Is there anything You don't keep stats of?

[Abula]

The stats have field: where, when, with whom, what drinks and how many, report of hangour day, report if there was sickness, general mood, report what I did (other aticities etc), how much money used and some others.

Well, I got tired of writing down what I eat a year ago. It took so much time to type in everything.

[teajay]

It's awesome, you would make a great bureaucrat. What's your definiton of drunk by the way?

I drink beer, every month a little more. That's the age. I rarely get drunk. Beer is good with dinner.

[Abula]

3 beers (or same alcohol amount) is minimum. Also they need to be drunk in a period which makes me not allowed to drive. Moreover I don't count when I drink myself . The bottomline is that I list all the parties where I was drunk.